In Louisville, Kentucky, a hundred feet below the surface, fun awaits: For more about the park, see Upcycling, Underground: Huge Bike Park Opens In Former Limestone Mine.
Good Ideas
City, Good Ideas, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning
Arguments on Cost & Flexibility Under a Complete Streets Ordinance
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There are two questions that I promised yesterday that I would take up today about the Complete Streets ordinance recently passed at Council on 1.20.15. The first is whether the draft ordinance was flexible enough, and the second about the costs of new roads or reconstruction that would include sidewalks or bike paths. I read…
City, Cycling, Development, Economy, Good Ideas, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning
In Support of the Complete Streets Initiative for Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
This Tuesday, January 20th at 6:30 PM, Common Council will consider a Complete Streets ordinance (item O-3) for Whitewater. A Complete Streets program simply requires planners to consider bike and pedestrian travel, for example, when either building or reconstructing streets within our city. (I listened closely to discussion of the idea at our 12.16.14 Common…
Charity, City, Good Ideas
The ‘Nearly Naked’ Run/Walk for Whitewater’s Community Clothes Closet
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
On Sunday, December 7th @ 11 AM, here’s a chance to join others in a very clever idea in support of a very good cause: Whitewater’s inaugural Nearly Naked 5K Run/Walk. Participants in the 5K run/walk will bundle up in clothing they’d like to donate to Whitewater’s Community Clothes Closet, and remove those items at…
Good Ideas, Science/Nature
The Makers of Things Present and Future
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a story at the Christian Science Monitor about makerspaces across America, like the one we have in town @ whitewatermakerspace.org, 1206 E Bluff Rd, Whitewater, WI 53190. It’s a new-old idea, as Noelle Swan writes: The ‘maker movement’ is heralded as a new industrial revolution – combining the spirit of the old shop class…
Good Ideas, Local Government
Local Gov’t Desperately Needs a Version of the ‘Tenth Man Rule’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Update, 7.15.14: for a discussion of this rule as most fittingly applicable to full-time staff, see, Administration, Council, and the Tenth Man Rule. In the science fiction novel World War Z, humanity fights a zombie war, and the book describes a look back after the war is over, with interviews of those who fought against…
Drink, Good Ideas, Technology
Italians Create First Zero-Gravity Espresso Machine
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Business, Corporate Welfare, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Government Spending, Technology
A Tech Company That Seeks Private Support
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
What does a small tech company that seeks private support look like? Often, we’ll not know, because those private companies seek the support of private venture capital, in thousands of encounters and presentations across America each day. Sometimes, though, one sees more because a private tech startup looks to something like Kickstarter to win backing…
City, Film, Good Ideas
Film: Today @ 12:30 PM at Seniors in the Park, The Great Beauty
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a screening today at 12:30 PM of The Great Beauty @ Seniors in the Park, in the community building. The 2014 winner of Best Foreign Film (at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes) will be shown in Italian with English subtitles. The film runs two hours, twenty-two minutes in length and is rated…
Good Ideas
The Better Approach of the Dark-Horse Underdog
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Dark horses (who emerge unexpectedly) and underdogs (who have the odds against them) are not the same thing. Still, I can think of no better combination as a model for approaching the world. While one cannot be a dark horse forever, and one is unlikely to be an underdog perpetually, it’s a powerful and satisfying…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Good Ideas, Press Release
Thursday, May 15th, 8-10 AM: Make Whitewater Even Nicer
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Downtown Whitewater volunteers and supporters: help us give the downtown a little “spit and polish” ahead of UW-Whitewater graduation this weekend! This will be a light cleanup, after the major cleanup April 26. When: Thursday, May 15, from 8 to 10 am. Where: Meet at Discover Whitewater (150 West Main Street). * We’ll be sweeping…
City, Good Ideas, Local Government
Rethinking Fort Atkinson
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It has often been said of ancient Israel that her excellence lay in how she differed from her less thoughtful and less civilized neighbors. Not the common and vulgar practices of others, but her own singular beliefs and practices, made her great. Nearby Fort Atkinson has, over recent years, been both an economic rival and…
City, Good Ideas, New Whitewater, Open Government
‘Best Practices, Fair Treatment, Transparency’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Writing about the city requires reading the public documents of local government, even if one chooses not to write about what one’s read. Reading and observing come well before writing. Daily observation inclines an observer not to the immediate, but the distant – one takes a longer view of things. Along the way,…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Education, Good Ideas, School District, Science/Nature
Science Night in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Diet Coke & Mentos from John Adams on Vimeo. Last night was Science Night in Whitewater, and many hundreds from the city turned out to see dozens of displays and exhibits. My family had a fine time, and I’d say that Science Night (held periodically but infrequently) is one of our favorite public events in…